It's a new year, and for the people of Romania and Bulgaria, today is a very special day - today is the day those countries officially became a part of the European Union.

It's interesting to see the EU continue growing and more countries adopt the Euro as their official currency. There is a great deal of promise in the vision of a grand unified Europe, but each member still has many of the same challenges that existed before. By no means does admittance magically solve your problems. Things take time to change.

What we now call the "European Union" was originally started as the "European Coal and Steel Community" back in 1952. Over the years, it has increased in size six times, and the sixth increase officially occurred today with the admittance of Romania and Bulgaria. The EU is now 27 members strong and represents about 500,000,000 people.

The BBC put together a nice page showing how the European Union has changed over the years. Check out the EU expansion page.

Here is another article: Romania and Bulgaria join the EU